One cafe owner in Parramatta told me that his most expensive pest treatment was not for termites or rodents… It was actually for a single cockroach that a customer found, took a picture of and posted on social media. He lost thousands of dollars in revenue due to the image being shared around 340 times simultaneously! See pest control Marsden Park
The reality is that the majority of commercial pest treatment Sydney will not tell you this information when they initially provide you with a quote.
Residential Pest Control vs Commercial Pest Control
Pest control (residential) consists of one or two people fumigating a house for 1–3 hours and when the job is done you go out to have lunch, right? When you operate a commercial business e.g. restaurant kitchens, childcare facilities or warehouses you have employees, customers, compliance (government), food safety & enormous reputations built up over many years. So you cannot afford to simply close the business down for a day (in the hope that your pest control provider will do their job correctly) or just to try and minimise your lost revenues.
Commercial pest control in Sydney must accommodate your work schedule. This means either early in the morning before service or late in the evening after closing time. Additionally, treatment must be conducted safely for food, comply with HACCP regulations and be documented appropriately so that you can provide proper documentation to the council inspector when they visit.
And they do visit!
Industries that can’t afford to make mistakes:
There is no doubt that restaurants or cafés are the first to think of when it comes to pest problems. For example, if you have a cockroach infestation occurring within the walls of a commercial kitchen, this could not only be detrimental to your customers; it may also be enough for the Health Department to revoke your food licence. German cockroaches love warm greasy spaces located beneath commercial fryers or dishwashers; moreover, they reproduce quickly which makes it difficult to completely eliminate without using a baiting system specifically targeting these areas.
However, hospitality isn’t the only industry that has pest pressures. Strata buildings & Body Corporates experience rodent problems between units via shared wall cavities & pipe penetrations. Warehouses are often infested by rats and mice that have been living amongst stored goods on pallets. Finally, the Childcare Industry has unique pest pressures because any treatment used must be completely safe for children; therefore, non-toxic treatments will need to be applied.
All businesses have pest pressures but there is no one-size-fits-all solution for commercial pest control; there are similarities between different industries but every industry must have pest management solutions matched to their particular type/s of pest pressure.
Documentation in Pest Control
Here is where a lot of business owners get surprised; Pest control in Sydney is not only about the treatment; it is also about maintaining documentation of the treatment. Treatments completed will need to have a pest management log, service reports, bait Station maps, and product safety data sheets. These documents are required should you be audited for food safety compliance or have a council inspection. It might not be enough to simply have completed a pest control service; an audit or inspection will require proof that you are implementing a professional pest control program.
Trying to do pest control on your own using a can of surface spray from the grocery store does not meet expectations of proof of pest management program implementation during an audit or inspection. This is true legally, as well practically; especially when a health inspector is standing in your kitchen on a Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m.
Ongoing Pest Control Treatments for Business
Monthly or quarterly service visits. Bait Station checks performed on a regular basis. Seasonal treatments adjusted to align with the seasonal pest calendar in Sydney (for instance rodents making their way indoors during the winter months, cockroaches increasing in number during the heat of summer, and wasp nests becoming more aggressive in late fall).
One-time pest control treatments do exist, but for any significant commercial establishment in Sydney ongoing pest control contracts are considered a mandatory overhead.
Ongoing pest control is one way of maintaining the ability to operate a business.